A data center may be defined as a location, for instance, a room (or rooms) that house(s) computers arranged in a number of racks. These racks are configured to house a relatively large number of electronic devices (e.g., computers, storage devices, telecommunication devices, etc.) which contain components (e.g., printed circuit boards, power supplies, processors, etc.) that dissipate heat during their operation.
Cooling units such as air conditioning units are typically used to cool heated air and to supply the cooled air to the electronic devices. The cooled air is typically supplied through a series of vent tiles in a floor positioned above a plenum that directs airflow from the air cooling units to the vent tiles. Traditionally, cooling units are typically provisioned and operated for worst-case or peak load scenarios. Since typical data center operations only utilize a fraction of the electronic devices in the data center, provisioning cooling units for worst-case or peak load scenarios is often inefficient.
In addition, in some conventional implementations, workloads are typically placed onto the electronic devices in the racks in either a random manner or based upon a scheme that follows the availability of the electronic devices. As such, conventional systems typically place the workload on electronic devices and then either decrease or increase cooling unit operations depending upon changes in the temperatures of the airflow supplied back into the cooling units. Operating cooling units in this manner is inefficient because the cooling units typically consume greater amounts of energy than they have to for adequately cooling the electronic devices.
In some other implementations, indexes of cooling efficiencies can be calculated to enable allocation of workload to computers according to the indexes. The indexes can identify local hot spots and hot air recirculation, or alternatively, the indexes can enable ranking of the most efficient locations within a data center to place workload. However, such approaches are typically focused on placing new workload on a per-electronic device basis, and do not take into account the fact that one electronic device (“first electronic device”) from which workload is removed can be surrounded by other electronic devices that can have relatively high workload (and therefore may have high cooling demands). The surrounding electronic devices can continue the high demand for cooling even though workload has been removed from the first electronic device.